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In London...

can_v

can_v

Feb 2, 2010
246
12
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#1
Hey guys,

I'm going to London between 3rd - 17th of April. I've never been there before. I wanna take a look at instrument shops there both new and used. I found some of interesting ones on the internet but most of them are so far away and even though she lives there now, I don't think my girlfriend wanna take 3 hours of train rides to music shop with me :(. Any recommend?

And I also wanna check out the places where they play good live music as well, not too heavy though, since I'm going with my girlfriend :crying:. If anyone can suggest a place where they play nice fusion - jazz, I would be very appreciated.

Thanks in advance :bassist:
 
#2
London is very big and very expensive!

Unfortunately the best music shops have gone bust due to internet retailing...:(

10 - 15 years ago I would have know exactly where you should go - but now I would just say that Denmark Street is good for "window shopping" - but don't buy anything there as the shops are over-priced and the staff not that good....:hmm:

As to live music - there is a huge number of places - hundreds and hundreds of venues that play every night. Fusion is a term that died out here in the 80s - but there are lots of Jazz clubs - again though they are very expensive and two tickets to some places might cost you more than your plane ticket from the US!! ;)

You could try this :

Invalid Link Removed
 
#5
+1 on the bass gallery - really cool little shop and home of sei basses, IIRC, and you'll probably be visiting Camden anyway!

Denmark Street, aka Tin Pan Alley, is nice to look around - some very cool vintage and used guitar shops and a lot of history but as people have already said, it's expensive as hell and apart from the vintage stuff noting you can't buy online cheaper.

Don't really know what shops you've found if it's gonna take you three hours to get there though, haha!?
 
#6
Bruce Lindfield said:
London is very big and very expensive!

Unfortunately the best music shops have gone bust due to internet retailing...:(

10 - 15 years ago I would have know exactly where you should go - but now I would just say that Denmark Street is good for "window shopping" - but don't buy anything there as the shops are over-priced and the staff not that good....:hmm:

As to live music - there is a huge number of places - hundreds and hundreds of venues that play every night. Fusion is a term that died out here in the 80s - but there are lots of Jazz clubs - again though they are very expensive and two tickets to some places might cost you more than your plane ticket from the US!! ;)

You could try this :

Invalid Link Removed
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips!

I've checked with some of my friends there, they said the same thing. Everything is expensive. One even said that the cheapest way to buy stuffs is through the internet, which makes me kinda sad actually.

Hmm... Fusion is a long dead term now? Sorry. I guess i'm spending too much time with older people. I'm only 28 but I'm playing with late 30s and 40-ish guys. And they still use that term. :D
 
#11
Eamesy said:
+1 on the bass gallery - really cool little shop and home of sei basses, IIRC, and you'll probably be visiting Camden anyway!

Denmark Street, aka Tin Pan Alley, is nice to look around - some very cool vintage and used guitar shops and a lot of history but as people have already said, it's expensive as hell and apart from the vintage stuff noting you can't buy online cheaper.

Don't really know what shops you've found if it's gonna take you three hours to get there though, haha!?
Click to expand...

+1. I've lived in London 15+ years and The Bass Gallery in Camden (North London) is the only place to go for bass guitars...well worth the visit (if nothing else to check out SEI basses which they make on-site in the basement, http://www.seibass.com).
 
#16
can_v said:
Hey guys,

I'm going to London between 3rd - 17th of April. I've never been there before. I wanna take a look at instrument shops there both new and used. I found some of interesting ones on the internet but most of them are so far away and even though she lives there now, I don't think my girlfriend wanna take 3 hours of train rides to music shop with me :(. Any recommend?

And I also wanna check out the places where they play good live music as well, not too heavy though, since I'm going with my girlfriend :crying:. If anyone can suggest a place where they play nice fusion - jazz, I would be very appreciated.

Thanks in advance :bassist:
Click to expand...

There's The Gallery in camden.
The best bass specific shop I know.
It is also extremely near one of the real tourist spotts-Camden Town with Camden market.
Then there is Denmark street ,off charing cross road.
It's famous for it's instrument shops .
I'm not gonna say anything about them being "good "or else, but since they are soo central I'd check them out.
For live music there's ronnie scotts and pizza express dean street and charlie wrights in hoxton and the royal festival hall, the barbican, the jazz cafe and many, many more.

Just a start...
:)
 

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